Luckily, Windows 10 and 11 Pro users can easily encrypt and decrypt flash drives with no additional software.
What Is BitLocker (And Why Use It)?
If your gear doesn’t have one, you’ll need tocreate a startup USB key.
However, this is only relevant to internal system drives, and here we’re discussing removable media.
Plug in your USB drive.
it’s possible for you to use Windows+E to do this quickly.
Right-choose the flash drive in Explorer and select “Turn on BitLocker”.
In Windows 11, you’ll have to punch “Show more details” first.
Wait for BitLocker to initialize the drive.
Choose whether to encrypt the whole drive or only used space.
Choose the encryption key in, which in almost all cases should be “Compatibility Mode.”
This ensures that older versions of Windows can read the drive.
Since we’re encrypting a portable drive, this is presumably something you want.
Click “Start Encrypting” and wait for the process to finish.
This is just a fast workaround, however.
On Windows 11, you’ll have to click “Show more options” first.
In the BitLocker management Windows, choose “Turn off BitLocker” for the drive in question.
Then simply confirm as you did when first encrypting the drive.
Third-Party Encryption Options
As mentioned earlier, BitLocker isn’t included in Home versions of Windows.
If you must carry sensitive information on-the-go, BitLocker is an excellent and easy solution.
